Social Sector

Giving it Away

What would your enterprise look like if you gave away your knowledge for free?  Would you lose your competitive advantage?  Would it attract those who believe what you believe?

I often find a whole new group of clients when I offer a free presentation on new trends and innovative approach.  It costs me very little to share the best ideas in the sector and ultimately it allow those who share my purpose to intersect with my vision.  If I charged them they would evaluate the seminar as a transaction but when I invest in them by exchanging information for free it becomes and experience.  I develop a relationship and it creates a different type of interaction.

Just Visiting or Going for the Summit?

For some people, reaching Basecamp at Everest is the goal.  They plan, set an itinerary, and pack accordingly.  It requires a specific type of trip and guide.  For another individual, the goal is to summit Everest.  Such an expedition requires a different set of equipment, planning, and support.  You rarely hear somebody talk about their journey to Camp II as the goal of their Everest expedition.  If you invest in the dream of climbing the peak then you are committed to travel as far up the mountain as your conditioning and the weather will allow. 

Strategic planning goals are the same.  It is scary to announce to the world that you are attempting to summit Everest or any mountain of note.  There is a simple black or white result to announce to your constituents at some point- we made it, we did not make it.  But there is something equally noble to present the dream and make you best attempt.  An organization that believes it can only reach Camp II and states such is most likely to regulate its efforts and resources over the duration of the strategic plan to reach Camp II.  A cause that aims for the summit may just catch a great weather window and find itself on the South Summit, looking at the true summit and knowing they have progressed much further than they ever imagined and Camp II is invisible in the clouds below.  Neither enterprise may actually reach the summit but one journey is remarkable and the other a bit pedestrian in the scale of the mountain.

Strategic goals should be remarkable.  They should inspire others and attract those who believe what you believe.  Reaching for extraordinary is remarkable in itself.

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.“

 

Foreground

I have come to appreciate the importance of including a foreground in order to put the main subject into perspective.  What may appear to be a small and easily climbable mountain summit becomes awe-inspiring when you take into the plains and the foothills that serve as the platform upon which a high Himalayian peak stands.  The Teton range from the vantage point of an airplane’s window does not strike one as completely awesome.  Standing across the valley near Kelly, Wyoming and taking in the vista provides an entirely new perspective.

Sometimes we are so close to the very peak we are trying to ascend that we can only speak from our perspective of being somewhere on the mountain’s face.  When we communicate only from where we reside at the moment we miss the opportunity to set the scene for those who wish to join us.  Sharing your organization’s history, successes and challenges, growth and mergers paints a picture of what you have achieved to arrive at your current location.  It provides a foreground and ultimately a context for your work.

Happy climbing today! 
 

Can we be more like you and different as the same time?

Political parties provide interesting divisions and equally eye-raising alliances.  I appreciate the following graphic as a representation of the corporate brands which binds and separates Democrats and Republicans.  One could make a case that there is unity and separation in the political brand report published by Good.

I propose that we often find ourselves searching for similarities and differences when reviewing data in the social sector.  We are similar to one enterprise when it is convenient or required but then the data can be re-arrange to show our organization’s competitive advantage and how we are uniquely positioned to succeed.  Our donors, customers, volunteers and communities are sophisticated enough to see the wizard behind the curtain madly moving dials.  Transparency is an easier narrative upon which to build clarity about organizational purpose than the earthquake prone zone of smoke and mirrors.

Discounting Charity

I stumbled across Groupon’s Grouponicus website this evening.  I am wondering about the ethics of giving a $25 microloan for the discounted price of $15 from Kiva.  Similar discounted charitable options exist from DonorChoose.  These are thoughtful gifts but I edge to uncomfortable with the idea that my next gift card to the cause of my choice comes on sale and somebody somewhere is picking-up the difference.  Is the variance being funded by the nonprofit’s general operating funds or some other funding mechanism?  Is not the point of philanthropy to take the full value of your treasure and share them with a cause that inspires you?  Have we decided that we need to move towards Black Friday pricing schemes in order to attract new donors?

Nudge

I would highly recommend the book, Nudge.  It provides a blueprint for building behavioral architects.  Simply put, it can help one understand the choices that make one program work brilliantly and another fail.  These micro-adjustments are often traced back to behavioral tipping points.  I appreciate the authors’ ability to breakdown complex behavioral concepts into the notion of the Planner (best represented by Mr. Spock from Star Trek) and the Doer (seen in the styling of Homer Simpson).  When you consider the little nudges a social enterprise can utilize to standout in a crowded sector, the book is a highly valuable resource.

Where to Start?

The more I read of Beth Kanter and Allison Fine’s, The Networked Nonprofit the more organizations that come to mind who would be well served by its resources and information.  I especially like the idea of capturing free agents (people working outside an organization who work on mobilizing support for a cause). We all know people who are connectors.  Those individuals who posses an innate ability to network every moment of the day and do so in an authentic manner.  Developing strategies to assist these free agents promote your enterprise is a powerful experience with a high return on investment.  I highly recommend Beth and Allison’s book.